Teachers have a very tough job as it is. Between ever-changing rules and policies on what’s allowed or required to be taught or not taught in the classroom, financial struggles, and kids who would sooner be on TikTok than learning a thing or two. The Nebraska Department of Education recently sent out a survey that asks some financial questions, then, allegedly, based on the answers, goes down a rabbit hole trying to pin the money problems on the teachers, not on the state underpaying them.
In the Nebraska Reddit thread posted by user jmeyer40, a Nebraska Teacher Retention Survey was administered to teachers in the state, asking a litany of questions, including some financial questions. The user said this about the surveys and what they noticed.
I received a survey about Teacher Retention from the Nebraska Department of Ed. yesterday. Like a lot of teachers, I personally feel like teacher pay should be increased due to the ongoing teacher shortage, an increased rate of teacher burnout, and the cost of everything rising rapidly.
At one point in the survey, they asked two questions about salary: “I think I am fairly paid in terms of my qualifications and efforts,” and “I can live comfortably off my salary.” I answered “no” to both, and the survey proceeded down a rabbit hole about finances that, to me, seemed like they were trying to trick me into saying that I was bad with money and that’s the reason why I’m not able to “live comfortably” off my salary. The survey even included some suggestions for how I could supplement my income (how kind of them), like getting a second job, receiving support from family, or leasing out space/property.
As you can see, state officials and government officials seem to be doing their best to blame widespread teacher shortages on anything that doesn’t point to their bank accounts. Nobody knows whether it’s a lack of funding or the Trump administration’s slashes to education budgets nationwide, but teachers are becoming hard to come by, and it seems there is no end in sight.
One user said, “This… it’s the recycling of trickle down economics and the idea that you can’t afford to live because you spend on frivolous items. However talk to one of the boomers who are complaining that we are whiners and you find that while they were making minimum wages before RR, they were able to afford newer cars, housing, utilities and food and still had money to buy drinks and bell bottoms. It’s greed and avarice, and it’s global.“
Another who used to teach also had an anecdote to share, stating, “Teaching in general is easily two or three jobs’ worth of work. Music Education, especially for high school choir or instrumentals is that and also doing all the work a college or professional director would do. Though you won’t do major works like Elijah or War Requiem there’s still all the same work on top of everything else. So…yeah. I do software and am preparing a private cabaret night instead now.“
It all comes to one thing, as another commentator pointed out briefly but succinctly, “That survey is blatant victim blaming“
